SMEs with bootstrap funds and limited industry knowledge is stuck in multiple myths surrounding cloud security that makes their cloud migration journies cumbersome. With digital transformation taking over all industries globally and remote working turning to be the ‘new normal’ – transitioning to the cloud has become necessary. For successful cloud services implementation, SMEs need to outlive the common cloud security myths limiting their vision and expanding the risk landscape.
Below listed are the most common cloud security myths that all SMEs need to consider, focusing on exploring the truth behind successfully running and securing all enterprise cloud solutions:
Myth 1: The Cloud Is Risky. Why Invest?
The fact is that the cloud is noway inherently unsafe. When cloud technologies are used properly, they are no less safe than any typical data center. It is mandatory to consider the incident response mechanisms across the cloud to safeguard from exploitation. Vulnerable customer codes or improper cloud configuration are the careless factors that cause real risks. So, SMEs need to focus on them more than the probable security flaws that could be discovered in the cloud provider’s code or infrastructure.
On average, over 90% of small businesses experience security benefits after transitioning to the cloud. Cloud isn’t risky, and it is undoubtedly an investment worth making. It is, in fact, the business’ responsibility to grant and administrate permissions to customize the cloud environment to eliminate vulnerabilities or escalate enterprise security issues.
Myth 2: The Cloud Provider is Solely Responsible for All Security Requirements
Cloud migration is a ‘shared’ and not ‘sole’ responsibility for any party. Before investing in any cloud solution, businesses need to be clear about their expectations and responsibilities. Specific aspects of the cloud services need to controlled by the businesses while the cloud solution providers carry out the rest. The solution vendor protects the systems post data upload, while it is the business’s responsibility to ensure that only safe data is processed and uploaded in the cloud. Solutions providers will only outline specific responsibilities for both themselves and their clients in their service level agreement (SLA), which should be mutually agreed upon and practiced.
Myth 3: Access Control Isn’t An Issue
In the virtual world, the cloud data can be accessed from anywhere — opening the floodgates for the threat actors exploiting the existing cloud deployments. It is immensely critical to maintaining a stout access control mechanism over the enterprise cloud environment to prevent unauthorized users from entering the system. Many cloud providers promise advanced access control capabilities out of the box, setting stringent authentication regulations across the entire cloud infrastructure. Still, the actual responsibility to overlook all access control mechanisms lies in the hands of the businesses.
Myth 4: Cloud Multitenancy Expands the Data Risk Landscape
Public cloud environments are advanced multitenant environments, operating diverse users’ cloud data on a shared server. Although they might seem to be risky at first, the reality is that only authorized people have access to their data even on the public cloud. The cloud providers partition all critical data to keep the access restricted to the user who uploads it. Multitenant cloud environments are no particular case; they are no more or less risky than other storage environments.
Myth 5: The Existing Security Tools Can Seamlessly Integrate With the Cloud
It might get tempting to assume that the legacy security tools used can handle all cloud solutions’ overall security, but that’s not always the case. While specific on-premise security tools expertly support integration with the new cloud solutions, it’s a safe bet that businesses will need to add new security tools to their infrastructure. These could either be some native security tools offered by the cloud solution vendor or any third-party installations.
Myth 6: The Cloud is Already Secure With No Further Need to Monitor for Security Breaches
In today’s world, security hackers are getting more sophisticated with each passing day – guaranteeing complete security is impossible. Even if the business takes all the required proactive measures to keep the cloud security threats out, specific threats like malware always lurk in the cloud environment. The cloud providers and most third-party vendors thankfully offer competitive cloud monitoring tools to track down suspicious cloud mishaps or threats. Businesses can implement cloud monitoring solutions for security, but tracking those tool’s performance is equally vital.
Conclusion
When businesses migrate to the cloud, the benefits are not only limited to the agility offered by cloud solutions but way beyond it. Cloud migration creates several negative tensions as well, mainly due to the inexperience of collaborating with cloud solutions. This combination of incredible benefits vs the restricting pressures has created such myths about the cloud in SMEs’ minds. Businesses need to be competent to outlive these challenges to unveil the true benefits of adopting the cloud and tapping all unexplored business expansion avenues for future success.
To learn more about cloud security, visit: www.rapyder.com/aws-cloud-security-service-provider/
Want to know how to secure your cloud or get started with your cloud journey! Contact us now for a free consultation